l three sides at once.

The danger of permitting a young boy or girl while under the influence
of this emotional instability to enter into any special form of
religious service is the danger of reaction. He will discover that
all is not as his early vision led him to suppose--because that
early vision was of things too high and holy for any earthly
realization--and he may turn against what seems to him to be hypocrisy
and pretense with a bitterness proportioned to his former love. Many
honest, faithful men and women remain in this state of reaction for
the rest of their lives.

[Sidenote: A Difficult Period]

Nevertheless, it will not do to thwart these young beginnings. They
must neither be nipped in the bud nor forced to a premature ripening.
Above all they must not be suffered to endure the killing frost of
ridicule. The period is a difficult one, but, as Dr. Stanley Hall
points out, it is supremely the mother's opportunity. If she can hold
her boy's or her girl's confidence now, can ease their eager young
hearts with an intelligent sympathy, she can probably keep them from
any public commitment. Perhaps they may desire to confide in the
minister; if so, let the mother confide in him first. Perhaps they
have bosom friends, passing through the same stirring experience; then
let the mother win over these friends.

Her object should be to shelter this beautiful sentiment; to keep it
safe from exposure; above all, to utilize it as a motive-power--as
an incentive to noble action. The Kindergarten rule is a good one: as
quick as a love springs in a child's breast, give it something to do.
When the love of God awakes there, give it much to do. Usually, the
only way open is to join the church, to make a public profession. The
wise mother will see to it that there are other ways, urging the young
knight to serve his King by going forth into the world immediately
about him and fighting against all forms of evil, giving him a
practical, definite quest. The result of such restriction of
public speech, and stimulation of private deed, will be a sincere,
lowly-minded religion, so inwoven with the truest activities as to be
inseparable from them. Such a religion knows no reaction.

[Sidenote: Bible Study]

Now is supremely the time for a study of the Bible. Interesting as a
Divine Story Book to the young children, it becomes the Book of Life
to these older ones. In teaching it at home, a few simple rules need
to be borne in